The invention is directed to an aseptic cream substitute.
Chefs use dairy creams everyday in the preparation of food. However, chefs have also been substituting artificial creams for dairy creams to save money, for ease of handling, for improved shelf-life, or to provide nondairy fat alternatives. For example, Minor""s Culinary Cream(trademark) is a refrigerated commercial cream substitute for the food service market produced by Nestle. A blend of SIMPLESSE 100, gelatin, xanthan gum, and alginate is used to stabilize the cream substitute. The substitute creams must exhibit at least comparable performance to dairy creams to be commercially viable.
Like dairy creams, artificial cream substitutes are stabilized aqueous dispersions of an edible fat. Extended shelf-life is only possible with sterile processing and packaging to prevent microbial spoilage. Butter fat and milk proteins may be present, together with natural or artificial emulsifiers. Artificial creams may also require oxidation stabilizers, such as BHA or BHT, or thickening agents, such as hydrocolloids and starches, and salts such as phosphates as a buffer control against pH changes that may destabilize the emulsion.
It is still desirable to reduce the overall cost of the current culinary products without changing the desired properties of the cream substitute. It is also desirable to develop a shelf-stable product that is processed aseptically, reducing the need for refrigeration, and extending the shelf-life of the finished product. Great Britain Patent 2,205,726 describes one such product which is a dispersion in an aqueous phase of edible fat, an emulsifier composition and protein, wherein the fat comprises vegetable butter or lauric fat having a solids content at 35xc2x0 C. at most about 5%, and at 25xc2x0 C. of at least 5%, and at 15xc2x0 C. a solid content which is greater by an additional 50%.
Published U.S. patent application U.S. 2001/0003598 A1 describes a gelatin free cream substitute comprising the combination of 5% to about 40% by weight butter, from about 0.25% to about 5% by weight of a thickening agent, and from about 0.25% to about 4% by weight of a food protein based on total weight of the cream substitute. The thickening agent may be a starch or food acceptable gum such as xanthan gum, guar gum, gum Arabic, carrageenan, gellan gum, locust bean gum, gum gatti, gum tragacanth, agar, algin, sodium alginate, potassium alginate, propylene glycol alginate, or a mixture thereof. The food protein may be soy, rice, pea, or milk protein, or a dairy protein such as whey protein concentrate, whey protein isolate, or casein.
The published application includes standard whey protein concentrate as a possible food protein used to produce the gelatin-fee cream substitute. However, culinary cream substitutes that are prepared with standard whey protein concentrate display the undesired characteristic of forming strong aggregates or gelling when heated.
It was discovered that an aseptic cream substitute can be prepared having improved heat and shelf stability over similar culinary cream substitutes prepared with standard whey protein concentrate. In particular, it was discovered that if microparticulated and denatured whey protein concentrate is used in place of the typical whey protein concentrate, a superior formulation can be prepared. A comparison between cream substitutes made with standard whey protein concentrate and cream substitutes made with microparticulated and denatured whey protein concentrate shows that the latter performed significantly better in both a functional test, which evaluates the performance of the cream substitute at low pH environments and a butter stability test, which evaluates the ability of the cream substitute to emulsify as butter was melted into it.
Using microparticulated and denatured whey protein concentrate to prepare aseptic cream substitutes results in texture enhancement; increased creaminess; superior emulsion stability; UHT, retort and steam heat stability; flexibility in both high and low pH formulations; uniform moisture distribution; and improved stability/texture when used in frozen desserts.
The invention is directed to an aseptic cream substitute comprising a composition of water, a dry blend, and a meltable oil or fat, wherein the dry blend comprises microparticulated and denatured whey protein concentrate and xanthan gum, wherein the composition is pasteurized and then homogenized to produce the aseptic cream substitute.
The invention is particularly directed to a cream substitute wherein the meltable oil or fat is butter.
The invention also relates to a foodstuff that contains the cream substitute of the invention.